Maryland’s Democratic governor is considering gerrymandering the lone Republican in his state’s congressional delegation out of a U.S. House seat.
Governor Wes Moore appeared on CBS News’ “Face The Nation” on Sunday and said that, in the interests of “fairness,” he is looking at targeting GOP Rep. Andy Harris in Maryland’s first district.
“I want to make sure that we have fair lines and fair seats,” said Moore.
Harris is the only Republican of Maryland’s ten members of Congress. In 2024, President Donald Trump received over a third of Maryland’s vote. He lost the state to former Vice President Kamala Harris, who won 63% of the state’s vote.
Moore said his plan to potentially gerrymander Harris out of the first district is about fighting against “situations where politicians are choosing voters.”
“We need to be able to have fair maps, and we also need to make sure that if the president of the United States is putting his finger on the scale to try to manipulate elections because he knows that his policies cannot win in a ballot box, then it behooves each and every one of us to be able to keep all options on the table to ensure that the voters’ voices can actually be heard,” Moore said.
“I want to make sure we have fair lines and fair seats”: Maryland governor Wes Moore (@GovWesMoore) told “Face the Nation’s” @margbrennan that “all options are on the table” regarding redistricting in Maryland, which currently has one Republican in its congressional delegation. pic.twitter.com/YCjljamtNl
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) August 24, 2025
Last week, the Texas state legislature passed a new congressional map that favors Republicans winning an extra five seats in the U.S. House in the upcoming midterm elections. Texas Republicans redrew the maps after President Donald Trump said that new lines should be drawn to get the GOP a handful more seats in the House.
Other GOP-led states may make similar moves. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has floated the idea of redistricting Florida. Ohio must draw new lines for its congressional map before the midterms by law.
The GOP push to redistrict in favor of Republicans has sparked a backlash from Democratic state officials who want to lean further into gerrymandering. California Governor Gavin Newsom has put forward a plan to draw a new map that could claw Democrats another five seats in California’s already overbalanced congressional delegation.
For Newsom’s plan to work, California voters must approve the new map since redistricting congressional seats in the state is controlled by an independent commission under a 2010 law. Newsom wants to temporarily return authority to redistrict back to the state legislature.
